Frequently Asked Questions

Efficiency Promise Homebuilder is a person or company who is aware of the ever increasing issues with energy, air quality and water supply. This builder recognizes new homes as either part of the solution or part of the problem. Efficiency Promise Homebuilders are committed to becoming part of the solution.

High performing Energy Smart Homes are important to having clean outdoor air. The EPA says the average home pollutes twice as much as the average car. The pollution comes from the power plant that generates the electricity that powers the home. North Texas, Houston and Galveston are in violation of the Federal Clean Air Act of 1970.

San Antonio and Austin are now officially classified as "near non-attainment". Essentially, this means our air is dirty and we are struggling to reverse the process. Building energy-efficient homes mean less electricity is used and that can directly be translated to fewer pollutants in our air. Former Dallas County Judge Margaret Kelliher stated that Children's Hospital in Dallas has the busiest emergency room in the country and that the number one treatment is "respiratory issues" in our children. As Judge Kelliher said, "clean air is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, clean air is a public health issue".

Testing each home for "tightness" is a last check to set up the home for excellent energy performance. The Home Tightness Test confirms that the home is tight (good for energy-efficiency), but not too tight (bad for indoor air quality). Testing each and every home is a significant upgrade on the level of effort and improved confidence level that the home will perform.

Our Efficiency Promiseis not a guarantee of a low utility bill! There are many reasons why this is not possible.

There will be differences in the definition of what is "low".

Electricity and Gas Rates could increase and we have no control over rates, taxes, service or delivery charges that may also rise.

How your family uses power has a huge impact on the final bill. Temperature settings on the thermostat can cause large variations. Pools, extra freezers, electric cars, big screen televisions, home offices... the usage variations are endless.

Homebuilding requires a series of choices - from design, to size, to products, to features. Smart Homebuilders and savvy consumers make tradeoffs to create value at all price points. Every participating Efficiency Promise builder has a focus on energy and resource sustainability with assessment, inspection, testing and confirmation built into the system. They have performed the best possible and most prudent job of designing and investing in affordable and durable - yet beautiful home where people can afford to buy and live. Collectively, your builder and our team have made intelligent and thoughtful choices to ensure that a home uses energy efficiently. We confirm the energy performance elements in the home when under construction and guarantee the results with the Efficiency Promise.

It took 160 years (1840 to 2000) for our North Central Texas to go from a scarcely populated area to the home for 5 million people. That was rapid growth. However, demographers studying population trends indicate that the population in this area will almost double - to 9 million people - by the year 2030.

Think about it, in 30 years we will have almost twice as many people, twice as many vehicles, twice as many roads - homes- office buildings and retail stores. Clean air is already a major health issue and, despite significant long-term planning, the drought is stressing our current water supplies - not even to mention the impact of millions more people and many more homes and businesses. We must reduce the environmental impact of each individual who lives in our geographic area to help control the environmental impact of almost doubling our population.

The Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) are the organizations certified by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and approved by the US Congress. These organizations have tools and protocols to study and model the energy performance of homes in the United States. The organization sponsoring Efficiency Promise has literally performed energy modeling on 50,000 homes and apartments in the last decade.

The energy performance software is built on the work of the Department of Energy's modeling software and the RESNET Technical Standard provides the best combination of user-friendly and sophisticated analysis in comparing homes to standards. After the thousands of homes modeled and many thousands of variations studied, the Efficiency Promise Team has the experience and data that compares current practice to those built to previous standards.

Home Energy Rating Companies are organizations certified to provide energy consulting, building modeling, inspections and performance tests to help ensure that homes are designed and built in an energy-efficient fashion.

Products: Air conditioning and heat pump standards have moved to 13 SEER. Windows all have Low-emissivity (low-e) glass and the standards for wall and ceiling insulation have increased.

Processes: Homes are much better sealed and as a result are much tighter. Duct systems are better sealed and now deliver significantly more conditioned air inside the structure. Loads are calculated more correctly and the heating and cooling systems are sized closely to the load - called "right sizing". There are many more products and processes - both large and small that have an impact.

It is a measure of the window's ability to reflect the rays of the sun off the window. Anything lower than .40 SHGC would be considered a good window. For SHGC, lower scores demonstrate a window more able to reflect the sun's rays.

U-Values are also a unit of measurement of heat transfer. They are used to measure the transfer of heat through windows. The U-Value of a window is the reciprocal of its R-Value (U=1/R). A lower U-Value has better insulating capabilities.

The EF (or Energy Factor) is used to calculate the energy-efficiency of hot water devices. This unit is the ratio of heat energy contained in the water in a hot water tank over a certain period of time divided by the energy that the hot water heater consumers over the same time period.

Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio is the total cooling output of an air conditioner during its normal annual usage period for cooling, in BTU/hours divided by the total electric energy input during the same period - in watt-hours.

Heating Seasonal Performance Factor is the measure for determining heating efficiency in heat pumps in the heating mode. It is calculated by dividing the estimated seasonal heating output (in BTU) by the seasonal power consumption (in watts).

Our Promise:

With the Efficiency Promise process. Your builder has invested in substantial effort to design, build, inspect and test a home for delivered energy efficiency. We work with your builder to issue an Efficiency Promise limited guarantee certificate.

Efficiency Promise will pay 100% of the difference if the guarantee amount is exceeded in either of the two first years of occupancy.